


To end in fire

by Sann



Series: Fire and doilies [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Bilbo, Bilbo is a dragon rider, Dragon Riders, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-03 07:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2842196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sann/pseuds/Sann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were one in mind and body- Bilbo's heart beating alongside hers and their minds linked. Tansy's low voice echoed through his head, her presence was a warm comfort on a cold winter's night. At night they would curl up together and she would fold her wings over his body and keep him safe and sheltered. During the day they would fly, soaring over even the mightiest of birds as they strove to equal even the sun in its perch high atop the heavens.</p><p>It had always been just the two of them, dragon and Hobbit, but then Gandalf came and with him came a dozen dwarves. And truly, nothing good ever happens when Gandalf visits the Shire, so of course he gets dragged along in someone else's mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

Bilbo scarcely got any visitors, and those few that did never stayed long. Tansy always scared them, no matter how sweet her temperament and how immaculate her manners when they came around. Never did she snap or roar or even as much as singe their clothes. Those few that did come always stood at the door and first asked where Tansy were coming around too (as if she were a whimsical relative). When Bilbo said _why yes, she is_ they would always offer some form of excuse and hurry away.

But he didn't mind, not truly. Tansy was company enough, her voice ever-present in his mind even when miles apart. She was a rock that withstood every storm that passed their tiny-little smial. Together they fit with little room to spare, so company was ever-welcome but not necessarily needed. And their smial was not built for it like Bag End was, it was too small, to cramped to fill it with relatives and the like. It was not like Bag End with its arched ceilings and its nooks and crannies and its armchair in front of the hearth.

(Bag End had burned, flames reaching up to the skies with greedy hands as they took all there was to offer)

Last Hill was as comfortable as Bag End had been, though not nearly as grandiose or spacious. It was on the furthest end of the Shire, near Bree, and whatever roads had one led to it had long-since been left to nature. But it had been given to them not for its comforts or its well-stocked pantry. No, the reason Last Hill was his was because of the enormous barn that rested on its premises.

A barn big enough to hide a still-growing dragon when she outgrew their little smial.

* * *

_There are little-fat-men coming up over the hill,_ Tansy commented idly and Bilbo instinctively looked up, seeing only the ceiling of his smial. He smiled nevertheless and can feel Tansy's own amusement bubbling up.

_It's terribly impolite to call a group of strangers fat,_ Bilbo responded, putting away the bowl of milk he'd been whisking. _But they are not hobbits? Are they dwarves then? Or just a group of small men from Bree or somesuch?_

 _Dwarves,_ there is a hint of steel in her voice that Bilbo doesn't quite like but he fileed it away. It is of no importance for now. _They reek of greed and vanity, I want them gone._

Bilbo didn't respond and instead washed his hands and scurried out of his cramped little kitchen. The smell of midmorning-rain met him halfway to the door but when he stepped outside it is mercifully dry. He squinted his eyes and, ah- yes. He could see them clearly, a distant group of little figures making their way down the hill like misshapen ants. Though there was one bigger spot of grey amongst them that instantly fills his stomach with dread.

 _Gandalf_ , their voices merged into one and he could feel his mouth mirroring Tansy's- lips drawing away to show slightly too-sharp teeth and eyes narrowing to thin slits.

His vision split in two, her eyes becoming his and his becoming hers and there were too-sharp colours and too many details but his mind adapted and they _clicked._ He could see them clearly, the dwarves and their wizard. He could see the specks of dust on their cloaks and the tangles in their beards and the grim set of their jaws. And he didn't like it one bit. Tansy shifted her wings and soared lower and lower, circling them as if they were prey, waiting for the moment to dive in and snap them up in her jaws.

Bilbo blinked and the dwarves were little ants climbing down a hill once more, distant specks of paint against a canvas of green. But the pangs of anger didn't dissipate, tiny specks of flame ready to morph into an inferno remained at the edge of his mind.

_I want that wizard gone too, him and his blasted dwarves. Let them taste my fire, Bilbo, let them taste our might. Their greed will taint the Shire and the wizard brings naught but bad news. I say we roast them and have them for supper, they should last us some days._

It took a bit of willpower not to chuckle (not to roll down his front-garden in belly-shaking hysterics) when Tansy imagined herself feasting on dwarves. Roasting them over a spit and spicing them with herbs while she lets poor Gandalf watch as she burns his hat and has it as an appetizer. The images are made in jest, he knows that, but her intent is true. He could feel the tension in her muscles as the winds beat beneath her wings, could feel the itching of her claws while his own fingers twitch in response.

He sat down on his bench (salvaged from the burning remains of Bag End) instead, pulling his pipe from his pocket and only getting up to get his pipe-weed. It took but a snap of his fingers to set the weeds aflame and then he settled himself against the wood. He blew smoke ring after smoke ring while he rested his feet on the specially-placed stool in front of the bench. But never did his eyes leave the hill in front of him or the dwarves making their way to the little path leading to his front door.

* * *

_Call, dear-one,_ Tansy orders _, and I shall come. I will be above you the whole time._

Bilbo didn't nod or as much as twitch or voice his minds' speech. He knows that she knows that he knows. There is no barrier between them, no line where he ends and she starts. Never had been, not since he first touched a hesitant finger to her bright yellow scales.

Though he could already hear the dwarves himself now, their loud voices hurting his ears while they grumble and rumble like an avalanche. They gathered in front of his fine-little bench in an odd half-circle with Gandalf squeezing in between them as he tried to get up to the front.

"Bilbo, my dear Hobbit-" he called jovially, inclining his head and smiling broadly. "Why, I must say I was most surprised when I found Bag End in ruins. A true pity, I am very sorry-"

"What do you want?" He had long since abandoned all semblance of respectable manners when concerning wizards or other unwanted guests. He shared mind and soul and home with a creature that solved its problems though fire-and-claw; sometimes _simple_ was best.

Gandalf laughed and gestured around with his arms broadly, eyes twinkling merrily. "You. For an adventure, I might add, because these fine fellows are in need of a burglar and a Hobbit is the most soft-footed of all that walk here. We would have you as our burglar, should you accept."

 _A dragon needs not be soft-footed, for we need not touch the ground in order to devour our prey_. Tansy bristled in his mind, righteous fury rising from its shaky slumber. _We don't need to walk or run or hide like cowards! Let the earth tremble at our might! We are fire and death from above and how dare that crackpot-old-gaffer say we are burglars? Only weaklings sneak in the shadows. If you want something you take it with honesty._

 _Spoken like a true dragoness,_ Bilbo quips, _have you been sneaking about with Lobelia again? Because need I remind you that I have more than once caught her sneaking my best silver spoons away in the folds of her apron?_

 _She has the guts to do it while you are looking and the skill to get away with it. She doesn't hide in the shadows and wait till you turn your back, Bilbo-dearest._ Tansy rumbled slowly, fury ebbing away slowly as it made way for humour. _She is a predator at its best, not a weakling lacking honour._

Dragons, as fickle as a tween Hobbit lass during the party season, Bilbo lamented with a sigh. But he turned away from the topic with an exaggerated smile and addressed Gandalf again. "Ah- _no_."

"You would deny us the chance to take back our home?" one of the dwarves hissed, sounding not much unlike a grumpy cat roused from its slumber.

"Well, if you are looking at it like that," he mused for a bit, stroking his chin with an absent frown. "Then yes. But I am not so much denying you the chance to take back your home rather than ensuring my own well-being. Might I stress that me coming along with you on your journey is a _very bad idea_? Because it is. For more reasons than you can imagine, actually. What would you have me do, I'm just asking for curiosity's sake mind you, I'm not agreeing to anything."

"Sneak past a dragon," Gandalf answered flippantly with his eyes sparkling from beneath the rim of his hat.

"Sneak past a-" whatever he had wanted to say was cut off by great, heaving breaths followed by a series of coughs.

"I'm fine," he heaved waving away the concerned looks, "truly-"

_A dragon? No, I will not allow it. Have them take fat Fiona if they want someone to sneak, she can steal away food in plain sight. Or even Lobelia, though I'd be loath to let her leave too. You're not getting near another dragon Bilbo, not while I breathe. You're mine._

What followed could perhaps best be described a series of curses Bilbo had most certainly _not_ taught her and would deny teaching her for years to come. That it was accompanied by a series of flashes of Tansy tearing apart another dragon with Bilbo watching helplessly from the ground did not improve it either.

 _I am not a defenceless damsel, Tansy-dear,_ he soothed her placidly, _and I said no already. What is the worst they can do_?

 

(apparently, the worst being them staying for dinner: a dozen dwarves and a wizard make for disastrous dinner guests. That they got him drunk and had him write a contract that yes he'd go with them as their burglar, made it only slightly worse)

 

 

(the flames that paint the night sky are explained as a local party gone wild, not a dragon on a rampage, because _why_ , Hobbits are truly a marvel with fireworks but _oh_ \- look at that, it is time for bed!)


	2. Chapter Two

 

It had, perhaps, not been a very smart move to keep going after the fourth glass of wine. But alas, company had been such a rarity that he had indulged himself a bit too much. And now he had a pounding in his head to accompany the pounding on his door.

 _Pounding on his door_?

Bilbo sent a questioning brush of his mind out to Tansy while he untangled himself from the couch he had slept on to answer the door. But Tansy did not respond, pulling the mental equivalent of shutting the door on someone.

"Ah- good morning-" Bilbo said, though his words were perhaps a bit slurred still, to his visitor.

Poor Daisy Took looked like she had seen a ghost or two, her face was pale and  her hands were clutching her skirts with white, shaking fingers. "Mister Baggins, there is a bit of a problem. Your, err, Tansy has taken all off Rosamund's sheep hostage and says she'll eat them unless you 'get rid of the dwarves'. And she says that then she'll start on the pigs and cows until there is nothing left for her to eat but the people of Bree-"

"Has she now?" Bilbo frowned a bit, his mind trying to make sense of the words through the fog that seemed to linger around his memories. "But dwarves … I don't remember dwarves …"

A quick look around his hallway and into the kitchen said _yes, you do remember dwarves_. They seemed to be strewn out on all of his furniture, one even dangling from his trusty chandelier as it swung about under his weight. Another two were passed out halfway into his pantry, flasks of his finest wine splashed around them.

"Good gracious," Bilbo swallowed, " _dwarves_. I'll be out in a bit, don't you worry Daisy. I'll take care of Tansy and get rid of the dwarves myself. Eat the people if Bree indeed, I'll get that idea out of that thick skull of hers. There will be no man-eating under my watch, I assure you!"

So Bilbo changed out of his stained clothes and into something a bit more proper for venturing outside to wrangle an unruly dragoness as quickly as he could. He had to hop over quite a bit of strewn-about limbs, climb over a dwarf blocking the doorway to his room whose stomach rose up like a mountain. Then he had to, of course, climb _back_ which, good gracious, did not wake the dwarf at all.

He did find something that made his stomach churn and his head throb even more painfully than before. _Oh dear, what have I done?_

 _Tansy?_ He tried instead, focusing on where the link had been rather than mulling over his find.

No response, she didn't even deign him with a flash of condescension or annoyance, as she was oft to do when she was a bit cross. Instead she remained distant and closed off, something that worried Bilbo dearly.

Instead of mulling over the consequences (she better not burn down half of Bree in his absence) Bilbo cast a last look over his shoulder at the sleeping dwarves before dashing off to find Tansy.

* * *

He looked a bit like lass with one too many children, clothes haphazardly thrown on and his hair messed from sleeping on something decidedly other than his nice, soft bed. He did not have the time to rub the sleep from his eyes or even to freshen up his breath to remove the scent of, well, lots of alcohol. In short, he looked as much as a proper gentlehobbit as a dog in a waistcoat did. But it did not bother him overly much, not when he had not been a proper gentlehobbit in a long, long time. Not since Tansy set fire to old Oderic's walking stick and said he smelled like stale bread and old milk.

That she had been saying what many a Hobbit though to themselves in the privacy of their minds remained unsaid, but it pretty much set the tone of what was yet to come. One of the other more memorable incidents had involved several barrels of ale, five threes and a party gone wrong.

 _Focus!_ Bilbo berated himself, hastening his steps and searching the horizon for the tell-tale yellow form of Tansy looming over the hills. He searched and searched until-

 _Tansy!_ He sent off the shout with as much force as he could manage, sleepy and drowsy as he was. A short spike of concern laced with a healthy dose of annoyance was all he got in return, but it was something.

"Tansy," Bilbo took in deep, gulping breaths of air to calm the fire burning in his chest. "Good gracious me, what has gotten into you? I woke up to Daisy Took pounding at my door like a madwoman saying you had taken sheep hostage-"

His voice trailed off while his eyes took in the herd of terrified sheep plastered together in a white, fluffy circle. Tansy's yellow tail flicked about once in a while, corralling the sheep back into the circle when they tried to escape. One or two were missing part of their wool, the areas covered in ash and soot.

It said a lot about what Bilbo had seen his rowdy dragon do that he was not even that surprised that she had actually gone through with the act and did indeed keep the sheep hostage. Daisy had always had a habit of turning an ant into a pony when it came to delivering messages, she was the cause of more than one nasty row, so to speak.

 "Of course I took them hostage," Tansy huffed out a plume of smoke and crossed her front legs delicately from where she laid on the grass. "A lady never makes empty threats."

 "And a lady you are," Bilbo acquiesced with a nod, though the motion made his head spin and almost made him topple over, running all the way had not been such a good idea after all.

 "Of course I am," another, much larger, plume of smoke escaped her jaws. "And I will tell you only once, get rid of the dwarves. Now."

 "Please." Was added after a moment of silence, Tansy cocking her head almost coquettishly while she did so.

"I- ah-" what came out was quite a bit garbled and not much unlike a child's first attempts at speaking.

"What?"

"I can't?"

Whatever wall Tansy had built between them crumbled down with little warning, emotion flooding back and forth between them. In between the bludgeoning waves of anger, displeasure and annoyance were melancholic twangs of hurt, jealousy and _fear_.

"Why not?" the edge to her voice was dangerously low. A rumble was building in her throat and the sheep reacted instinctively, bolting in all directions, and Tansy let them. Her eyes were focused on him and him only, she rose from the ground slowly with her tail swishing back and forth like a displeasured cat. Once she had risen to her full length did she lower her head to look Bilbo straight in the eyes.

"I might have found a contract with my name and signature on it?" Bilbo ventured carefully, "and with that I might have promised them my services as a burglar in their quest for … I don't even know. The contract was rather long winding and I was in a hurry to save the sheep from your wrath and did not manage to read it completely. There was something about a beast and some furnace with horns or somesuch but I can't quite remember."

_I am not, in any way replacing you with a group of dwarves. Not ever. Not even when they offered me all the cream cakes and tea in the world. You know that, you little flying menace. I love you more than anything, I can't possibly love anyone or anything more than I love you, silly dragon, you know that. I know that you do. And I don't want a herd or flock or whatever a group of dwarves is called either, but I might just be stuck with them for a little while._

Voices were forgotten and Tansy pressed the tip of her nose against Bilbo's stomach. A small current of apologetic feelings and a general sense of _I'm sorry_ tickled his mind, dissipating as quickly as it had come to make way for the steady feel of contentment and a little remaining annoyance.

 _I am going to replace you if you're not careful,_ the wave of emotions abated a bit, the remainder of the storm calming down, _but I am **not** happy. Not at all. And I am going to fry those blasted dwarves if they as much as crinkle a hair on your feet, Bilbo, and them I am going to build a lair out of their bones!_

With a sigh he went to pat Tansy's snout, shaking his head softly. "No lairs and frying or other nonsense. I'll see if I can get them to let me break the contract on accounts of .. well.. I was pretty drunk at the time, I suppose that might get it done."

_It'd better._

They spent a moment there, overly dramatic dragoness and less-than-proper gentlehobbit standing together on a hill. The sun had narrowly risen from over the horizon and bathed them in gentle light, a cool morning-breeze blew and carried with it the scent of nature at its best.

(and let it be said that Bilbo Baggins had long since been infamous for his poor decision making after a night of merriment)

"Ah, I remember now. It was a furnace with _wings_! They want me to steal from a dragon!"

The resulting reaction woke up all residents of the Shire who had not been awake to begin with.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first since the start of 2015 that I have been able to touch my computer and write something other than essays.
> 
> That said, dragons, yay! I wrote over 9/10ths of this chapter, in like, an hour or two. I just finished a week of nothing but exams, which was awful, and have to work the whole weekend (I have a job now, yay to contributing to society and making way more than most of my classmates) but this is for all of you amazing people that keep sending me lovely comments :)
> 
> That said, I felt like writing more about dragons because I've read some great works with dragons the last week and am itching for more, so I continued my own dragon fic instead.
> 
> Also, Tansy did not know about the contract because she pretty much blocked him out once he let the dwarves in. And when they weren't gone in the morning she threw a fit. She's a bit like my horse actually, if my horse could fly and breathe fire, both are overly dramatic.

**Author's Note:**

> Another surprise! My muse had an affair with .. well .. a dragon, I suppose.
> 
> I hope you like it!


End file.
